Lamp socket and holder



April 1941? J. c. STEARNS 2,239,451

LAMP SOCKET AND HOLDER Filed July 23, 1940 Patented Apr. 22, 1941 jUNITED L STATES PATENT OFFICE LADIP SOCKEI AND IIOLDER Jason C. Stearns,Worcester, Mass. Application July 23, 1940, Serial No. 346,940

7 Claims. (Cl. 173-339) K. This invention relates to lamp sockets andspring finger holding means therefor.

Objects of the invention include the provision of a lamp socket andholdertherefor which is adapted to be inserted thru an aperture in asocket in place in a panel and which will not beg 10,

subject to shaking loose from the same thru vibration such for instanceas may be encountered in motor vehicles; the provision of a resilientholder for a lamp socket which is particularly adapted for applicationto panels of vary-; 15

ing thicknesses without the necessity for adjustment; the provision of aresilient lamp socket holder in which the resilient holding meanscomprises elongated spring fingers which extend from the rear of thesocket towards the lamp and 20 which have a pivoting action adjacent therear of the socket so that upon compression of the spring finger theends thereof will not only bend inwardly but will have a slightmovementin a direction away from the rear of the, socket so fzo that incombination with a fixed flange on the socket the holder may be usedwith varying panel thicknesses and still retain a firm holdin actionwhich is not subject to loosening due to vibration;

and the provision of a resilient spring finger lamp fi socket holder inwhich the spring fingers extend from the. rear of the socket beyond itslamp holding end and in which the socket is provided with a flange whichcooperates with the forward ends of the spring finger to grasp a panelor other support therebetween to thus firmly locate and hold the lampsocket,

Other objects and advantages of the inventio will appear hereinafter.

Reference is to be had to the' accompanying drawing, in which Fig. 1 isa side view of the structure embodying the invention, parts being insection;

Fig. 2 is a top plan view of a holder, looking in the direction of arrow2 in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a front view showing the socket flange? Fig. 4 is an end viewof one of the spring fingers, looking in the direction of arrow 4 inFig. 2; and

Fig. 5 is a view of the spring fingers showing,

55 spring finger 40.

is capable of attachment to a panel by spring means and which would befree of danger of working loose thru vibration. This is particularlytrue in the automotive industries in which small lamps are used to agreat extent on dashboards, and other thin partitions, such lamps, ofcourse, being subject to vibration of the automobile. At the same time,there is the problem of providing a single simple design of lamp socketholder which can be used in conjunction with various thicknesses ofpanels, such panels varying as much as 25 thousandths of an inch. Up tothe present time, lamp socket holders of the present type have almostuniversally been made with some short spring arrangement at tached tothe forward or lamp-receiving end oi the socket, which renders itimpossible to obtain much resilience. The present invention overcomesthe present dilficulties aforesaid and at the same time retains andenhances the advantages of the spring finger constructions of the priorart, by a novel structure which provides long spring fingers obtainingreater resilience.

Referring to the drawing in detail, the numeral [0 indicates asupporting panel such as for instance the dashboard of an automobile orother partition. This panel is apertured as at [2 for the reception ofthe lamp 14. A cylindrical socket I6 is provided and this socket isequipped with the conventional bayonet-type joint I8 for the receptionand holding of pins 20 on the lamp base 22. The socket is open at itsforward end for the reception of the lamp base and at its rearward endis restricted to a small opening for the insertion of. a cord such asthat shown at 24. The end of the cord is equipped with the conventionalspring and washer construction as shown in Fig. 1, for resilientlysecuring the lamp in place.

At its forward end, the socket I6 is provided with an outstandingcircular flange 26 which is equipped with a Z bend for the reception ofa felt or other washer 28 and also to provide a flat surface 30 to abutthe rear side of the panel [0. The flange 26 is also provided with apair of diametrically opposite arcuate slots 32 for a purpose to bedescribed. 7

At the rear end of the socket, a plate 34 of spring metal is secured. asby means of an eyelet x36. or by any other convenient or desired means.

This plate is bent forwardly in the general direction of the axis of thesocket l6 and this bend is provided with a reverse curve 38 for thepurpose of imparting additional resiliency to the From the reversecurve, the

fingers extend forwardly through slots 32 which are of a width severaltimes greater than the thickness of the fingers so that a radial playmay be permitted. It will be noted that the spring fingers 40 tend tostraighten out towards the plane of the plate 34-but are restrained fromthis action by the outer walls of the slots 32, and since the slots 32are radially spaced from the walls of the socket I6, fingers 40 arenormally substantially spaced from the socket walls.

Spring fingers 40 extend somewhat beyond the flange surface 33 and theirfree ends terminate in inwardly bent projections 42, rearwardly of whichthere are projections 44 stuck up for the purpose of abutment againstthe panel In. As shown in Fig. 4, the fingers 40 are transversely curvedfor additional strength and slots 32 are correspondingly curved toaccommodate the same.

In the operation of the device, the lamp may be assembled in the socketand then the spring fingers may be grasped as shown in Fig. 5 so as tocompress the fingers 40 in a radial direction so that the ends of thefingers may be inserted thru the aperture [2 in the panel 10. The bentprojections 42 will assist in locating the aperture when it is in anout-of-the-way position. As soon as projections 44 have passed beyondthe outer surface of the panel, the spring fingers may be released andthey will then expand due to their inherent resiliency and grasp theedge of the aperture in the panel so that the flange 26 abuts the rearedge of the panel and the socket is thereby firmly held in position.Clearly the comparatively great length of the spring fingers 40 providesa much greater resiliency than has been possible hereto-fore in shortspring fingers which are supported at the forward or flanged end of thesocket. Also, a very important result of the present construction isthat when the spring fingers are radially contracted, they will pivotabout a point in the plate 34 approximately in line with the outersurface of the socket l6, and since the fingers are spaced from thesurface of the socket in normal condition or in panel gripping position,it will be seen that the pivoting of the finger towards the socket willresult in a slight travel of the free ends of the spring fingers in adirection away from the plate 34,

since the ends of the fingers will travel on an arc Whose center wouldbe the pivot point of the fingers. Hence, by contracting the springfingers sufiiciently, a panel of greater thickness than that shown canbe used as the lamp socket support, and the same gripping action isobtained.

It will therefore be seen that there has been provided a spring fingerlamp socket holder which can be used with various thicknesses of panelsupports without adjustment and which will be retained in its supportregardless of the ordinary vibrations encountered in motor vehicles, dueto the great pressure exerted by the long spring fingers.

Having thus described my invention and the advantages thereof, I do notwish to be limited to the details herein disclosed, otherwise than asset forth in the claims, but what I claim is:

1. As an article of manufacture, a light bulb socket, a plurality ofspring metal fingers attached to said socket transversely thereof at oneend so that said fingers extend outwardly radially of said socket, saidfingers being reversely directed from adjacent said end towards theother end of the socket, but remaining spaced therefrom throughout theirlengths, and terminating in free ends, said fingers being pivotableadjacent their points of attachment, whereby their free ends mayapproach said socket and retreat from their points of attachment, meanson said free ends for securement to a support, the radial and reverselydirected portions of said fingers providing a hand grip of a diametergreatly in excess of said socketforeasy manipulation thereof and of saidfingers.

2. As an article of manufacture, a generally cylindrical socket having abulb receiving opening at one end and a conductor opening at its otherend, a flange on the socket adjacent the bulb opening, a plurality ofapertures in said flange, a plurality of spring fingers attached to saidsocket adjacent the conductor opening and extending towards and beyondsaid bulb opening, said fingers passing through said apertures andterminating in free ends, the latter being efiective to clamp an objectagainst said flange.

3. As an article of manufacture, a generally cylindrical light bulbsocket having a bulb receiving opening at one end, a plurality of springfingers attached to said socket remote from said bulb opening, saidfingers extending away from the socket near their points of attachmentand being reversely curved towards the socket and in the direction ofthe bulb opening, said fingers being free at their ends and spaced fromsaid socket in parallel relation thereto, said fingers being capable ofpivotal action near their points of attachment to the socket, means onthe free ends of the fingers for attachment to a support, said springfingers providing an enlarged hand grip for easy manipulation of saidsocket and fingers during attachment thereof to a support.

4. As an article of manufacture, as recited in claim 3, in which thesocket is provided with a flange adjacent the bulb opening, there beingmeans in said flange effective to receive said fingers adjacent theirends.

5. As an article of manufacture, a light bulb socket having asubstantially closed end and an open end, a plurality of resilientfingers attached to the exterior of said socket at said closed end andextending generally radially away from said socket for a short distance,said fingers being reversely curved to extend back toward and intosubstantially parallel and relatively close but spaced relation to saidsocket towards said open end of said socket, said fingers terminating infree ends, means on said free ends for attachment to a support, theparts of said fingers loat the open end of said socket, said fingerspassing thru said flange and beyond the same.

JASON C. STEARNS.

